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Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review of 15 studies, 47,471 adults: more steps linked to lower death risk

Paluch and colleagues · The Lancet. Public health · 2022

Original title: Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

Compared with the lowest step group, the hazard ratio for death was 0·60 for group 2, 0·55 for group 3 and 0·47 for group 4. Risk kept falling until 6000-8000 steps a day in people 60 and older, and 8000-10 000 in younger adults.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
15 studies, 47,471 people · Adults aged 18 and older from 15 studies in several countries
What was tested
Compared people by how many steps they took a day (four groups, lowest group as the reference), then followed them for deaths
What it measured
The question itself: death from any cause
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests relevant to steps; funded by US CDC and NIH grants.
Journal
The Lancet. Public health, 2022
Source
PubMed record 35247352. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of 15 studies with 47,471 people.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: death from any cause.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: death from any cause

    0

    Not done yet. This is the step that would answer the question.

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    10

    9 benefit, 1 no difference

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “How many steps a day lower the risk of early death?”

About 6,000 to 10,000 steps; fewer if older.

Confidence: low. Based on 17 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Other reviews on this question

See all 17 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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